Summer Fun (and Hot Runs)…

I feel like I’m in my senior year of high school and have been absent for 3-weeks because I had the chicken pox (yes, it’s true, I was 17 years old when I got the chicken pox!).  I haven’t posted in a few weeks. Juggling the kids, work, marathon training and life has been quite the struggle, but I am getting through it.

Quick update (is it ever really quick?).  Kids started summer camp 3-weeks ago.  The first few days were okay, and then there were tears others, but now, they’re pros.

One of the days I picked the kids up, the teacher told me Sebastian had a (girl)friend that follows him and sits next to him at lunch. They supposedly feed each other lunch.

Favorite part of the day is when I pick them up. But overall, they’re having a blast.

Their last week is next week but I am thinking of doing one more week after and then they’ll have two weeks before school starts (and for me to get Sebastian fully potty trained. We’re working on it!).

We have spent some time with family when we can.  P’s nephew came to my office two Fridays ago and then he slept over.

We had dinner with my in-laws and then Jules, Lili and I hit up our favorite cafe, Van Goh’s Ear.

Then Sundays we go to mass.

We made it to the movies in the park again.  This time we watched Hotel Transylvania 2. Next week is the last movie in the park, Inside Out. I’m looking forward to that one.

And last Friday after work, I picked up my niece from her summer camp so that the kids had some time to play.

When I’m not able to make it outdoors for a run, I turn to my trusty tread.

And I just started binge watching Pretty Little Liars (and I’m obsessed.  Almost on season 4 so still so much to catch up on!).

We tried out a new hole in the wall Mexican place, Freppe’s.

And we loved it!!!!!!

Last weekend it RAINED and RAINED… so we made sure to do some indoors arts/crafts projects.

We read for the millionth time, Where the Wild Things Are and then made monsters and boats.  Then we did a paint night.

It was fun.

We try to get to the pool when we can.

And on Tuesday we went to National Night Out in town.

Sebastian was STAR-STRUCK when he saw Spiderman.

And when Spiderman gave him a high-5, well, that just made his day.

AND Pedro’s birthday gift to me…

New shoes, fuel, compression socks, etc…. I’m in heaven. (and yes, my birthday was nearly two months ago… I just used his certificate yesterday!).

Do you watch PLL? What’s your favorite TV show(s)? I have a few. Breaking Bad, Grey’s Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, Empire (which I still need to catch up on).

Plans for the weekend? I have a long run and nothing else on schedule really. I like those kinds of weekends…

 

 

Server’s Down + Slow Internet

3-Mile Run – COMPLETED

We can’t do any work because our servers are down (and our Internet is SLOWER than dial-up connection). I am leaving work a bit early today (about 30-40 minutes) so I didn’t take a lunch on purpose. I’m sure I could have still taken one, but I opted to just stay in. It all worked out. Since I knew last night that I would have to leave early and not take a lunch, I did a run in the morning. I had to stop at 3-miles because I heard Lili’s teeny-tiny voice, “iccccccck, mommmmmmy, BAS is stinky. He pooped!!!!” So I hopped off and cleaned him up.

I don’t know if I mentioned here, but a few weeks ago, this happened to my iPhone.

iPhone on Crack

My girlfriend was getting it fixed but now there’s something more serious wrong with it. I don’t even know what I will do now. I might have to resort to connecting my iPhone4 until we’re eligible for new phones in November. For now, I’ve been surviving with my mini iPad (just as long as I have wiFi I’m all good. No really… last week I tried to find a payphone. I couldn’t find ONE!).

We had a light evening. I scooped up the kids and hung out with my parents for a bit before we headed over to story/craft time. Lili was excited. we returned her books and then waited patiently for Ms. Barbara to start her story. I was so proud of Lili too. She’s usually very shy and when we did the Hokey Pokey, she participated. Also when we did Old MacDonald and his farm — she raised her hand to give an animal. 🙂 Glad she’s getting out of her shell. While Ms. Barbara started her book, “Demetrius and the Astronaut”, B and I wandered the library (otherwise, he would have been totally disruptive). After story time, Lili got settled at the table to start her craft.

Crafting

I took out the blocks and let B play with them on the reading carpet. I had to keep an eye on the both of them but then something caught my eye. I couldn’t believe how Sebastian was just building blocks higher and higher.

Keeping Quiet

a little higher…

Hooray!!!

I was amazed and proud of him. And of course Lili too. Her work came out fabulous.

Demetrius and the Astronaut

I let the kids play for a little while longer before we headed home. As soon as we got home, P was getting on the treadmill to workout. He did good for the first time in awhile. We didn’t eat dinner until close to 8:15 and the kids didn’t go to bed till almost 9:30. WAYYYYY past their bedtime. Apparently I was exhausted too. I fell right to sleep with them.

Weekly family dinners… How often do you get together with family during the week? Since both our parents watch our kids, we see family twice a week. We don’t always have dinner with them but we do get chat for quite some time.

I’m going to pump a little early and then head out. I can’t do much work here anyway without our G-Drive.

Lucky Six

I should have ran 6-miles this morning, but all I had time for was 5. Today is my niece’s 6th Birthday.

Scarlett Bella & Me

I’ll have more recent pics of her up tomorrow as we’re stopping by for dinner and cake.

2010

The above picture is actually a month and a half before P and I got married. We were in Atlantic City for my brother’s 21st birthday and I ended up buying a dress for my “engagement” party. It really wasn’t an engagement party but just a small intimate pre-celebration before we got married since we were getting married in City Hall. 🙂

I’m running out to this toy store in town. My sister said NO TOYS on her invitation for my niece’s birthday party, but she’s 6!!! What 6 year old just wants clothes? Hopefully I can find something both fun and educational. I mean, it’s a pretty cool store and I might need to refrain myself from buying too many things.

What was your favorite toy growing up? We used to get a bunch of used toys but LOVED it. My Little Pony, Barbies, Transformers.

Who grew up watching JEM and the Holograms? I can’t believe the movie they’re making and I saw the trailer. Not too happy about it.

Happy Wednesday. Halfway through the week, friends.

My Favorite Work Lunch

My new morning workout is basically treading it.

My Boo

And yes, the kids are still obsessed with my treadmill. As soon as they hear me cooling down, they line up to hop on once it’s unplugged.

I’ve been so busy at work the last two days. But I can’t complain as it makes the day go by faster. I also ordered one of my favorite work lunches from the deli. A steak sandwich. Of course today I ordered the wrong one, but it still tasted delicious.

Steak on Flatbread

And since I didn’t have to pick up Lili today, I had to stop at Target to get the essentials — including some shorts for the kids and a birthday gift for my niece. She turns SIX tomorrow. Crazy.

Tuesdays/Wednesdays are my errands day, just until Lili is out of school for the summer. I will miss having her at the office though.

Conference Call

But I’ll get to work out also. So I guess it’s a win-win situation.

What’s your favorite lunch?

Do you run errands on your lunch break?

Summer Weather

It is BEAUTIFUL out today. Unfortunately, I had to settle for the good old ‘mill for my morning run. P will be cleaning off the jogger tonight and I can finally take the kiddos out for a run. It would really be B’s first time experiencing runs in the jogger. I mean, he was SO little when I would take him. Most of the time, he’d fall asleep. So I’m very, VERY interested to see how he will be throughout a run (short or long). I remember Lili used to be able to sit in the jogger for at least 2+ hours. The longest run she was in the jogger was over 10 miles. Granted, she was 2 years old. She was still a trooper.

We had a lovely weekend and Lili is pretty much all better (aside from allergies and a mild cough). On Friday morning, I woke up with the kids on the later side and we started our day. I was happy to have Lili home for the day. I put some learning music on and the kids helped me bake a banana bread. Then I made a three egg with cheese omelette (kids ate most of it and only left me with two bites). After the banana bread was done, I put a load of laundry in and baked cookies. When the cookies were done, I was ready to RUN.

Freshly Baked Goodies

I caught up with most of Grey’s Anatomy on my run (it was a 2-hour episode, but really 85 minutes on ABC.COM, so I still had about 25 minutes left). I’m just not feeling it after they killed of McDreamy. I’m still mourning. At least I’m over the denial. The kids were thrilled that I was done with my run.

MOMMY’S DONE!!!!

After my run, I put another load in the wash and the one in the dryer, took a quick shower and then started Lili on some school work. I emailed her teacher to ask her what she missed last week and she missed the letter Z, the number 13, more on symmetry, estimation and the new thing they’re learning is about volume. So many things.

Busy Worker

We worked for about an hour and then I put the kids down to nap. By 2pm, I had to wake them up, get them dressed and we had to pick up some papers at my in-laws that they needed notarized. I then headed over to pick up my niece from school and my sis left the house key.

When we got to my sister’s, I let the dog out, made sure Scarlett washed her hands, put her lunch bag away and she practiced the piano.

Piano Practice

After, they had a quick snack and played. My sister did not get home for another two hours so I prepared their dinner and when my sis got there, we all ate. She let Georgie back in and initially B was scared. After 15 minutes, he was HAPPY and they were best buds.

Best Buds

The cousins had so much fun and I left with another bag of clothes from my sister.

Happy Cousins

We were home by 8:30 and P was sad the Nets lost. I gave Lili a quick bath and into bed they went. Exhausted.

Saturday morning I woke up and made breakfast. Then I ran 3 miles and showered. I did another load of laundry, put the kids down to nap and then P went to run errands. When he got home, I fed the kids lunch and then we went outside to play. P was mowing the lawn and cutting the hedges.

Scooter-Time

Scooter Boy

Cheesin’

It was beautiful. We got lucky with great summer-like weather. BUT, the pollen was crazy high. After an hour or so, Lili complained that her nose was runny and her eyes were watery and wanted to stay inside now. I started dinner and folded the laundry. Kids ate and then I gave them a bath.

P and I decided last minute to order the fight. What a waste… but I guess we would have been more mad if we missed something big. HA! It started so late though — Almost midnight on the east coast. So yeah, you know I did not sleep until 1AM.

I took off from working out yesterday and fed kids and myself breakfast before Sunday mass. Don’t even ask how we got there. Mass starts at 10:30 and I didn’t get into the shower until 10. Then P said he wanted to come so jumped out of bed and into the shower by 10:10. We were about 5 minutes late but it worked out perfect and both kids did great.

Ready for Sunday Mass

Poppa’s Girl

When we got home, I put B down for a nap, came out and fed Lili lunch and then we got ready for her classmate’s 4th birthday party. It started at 2pm and she was so exited. Unfortunately, not many of her classmates came. Out of 17 kids, only 3 of them from school were there.

Friends

I can’t take it. These little kids are too cute.

Maria & Lili

Happy Birthday, Anderson

Anderson is the little boy all the way to the right. Too cute.

Lili and I did the food shopping after the party and then came home. Thank goodness we had leftovers.

My weekend in a nutshell. I know, that’s pretty darn long. HA!

Did anybody else order the fight? I was putting the kids down when I heard P playing a video game. Don’t think for a minute I walked into his room and scolded him — I told him I didn’t care if it was commentary, biographies on the boxers, or the opening act boxers, but he better be watching WHATEVER is on because it’s costing us $100.

Who were you rooting for? Of course I was #teampacquiao.

Anybody else watching the playoffs?

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Let’s Catch-Up

Wow, talk about being out of the loop over here. After I got sick, both kids were sick and I ended up having to take B to the doctor’s on two separate occasions. He had a fever as high as 104 for 4-days straight and the doctor said it was just viral. A few days after, he broke out in a rash (nothing terrible) and I had a feeling it was Roseola. Sure enough, it was…

Sick Bubs

The rash went away within two days and he was back to himself. 🙂

So even though I’ve been gone, I’ve been keeping up with my runs/workouts. It’s been tough but I’m finally feeling like my runs are consistent and I am trying to find a good race to put in the books.

Today is my MIL’s birthday.

Happy Birthday

After her hand surgery, she’s been in pain, but has been keeping her spirits high. I don’t know how she deals with the pain. I’m such a wimp when it comes to pain.

Anyway, we had our first weekend where nobody was sick (I mean, I still have this nagging cough, but nothing crazy), so we took advantage and drove down to P’s Alma mater. We decided to have a picnic at Rutgers Garden.

My Loves

Tree Climbing

Obligatory Chair Pic

It was a great day. And the next day, we ended up staying in, doing arts and crafts and I baked my mac and cheese and my MIL’s delicious torta (it’s like a lemon pound cake).

Mac & Cheese

Torta

And then I had to do so much laundry, clean out closets and then put away clothes. We had dinner at my sister’s a few nights ago and she was getting rid of clothes that no longer fit her. Turns out I scored three full bags.

New Clothes

The kids played while we were going through her closet.

We ended up leaving later than I had anticipated. B was sleeping and Lili was already winding it down with her cousin.

But yeah, this week at work has been pretty awesome because I don’t have to think about what I will wear. It’s been more of a “hmm, what won’t I wear to work?” this week.

Samples

So tonight, we’ll probably pick up a pizza pie and have dinner at my in-laws. I can’t wait to give her the gift we made.

DIY corkboard

We made her this cork board on Sunday’s arts and crafts night. And then we ordered her Ray-Bans.

She was asking for them recently so we bought them for her.

I think that’s enough catching up for now. Can’t wait to catch up with everyone else. I have this school multicultural project to work on for Lili that is due on Friday. Love when her school gives last minute projects.

How’s your week going?

What’s your ethnic background? I am Filipino (though I always like to add in the 1/8 Chinese from my great grandfather who was 100% Chinese) and P is 50% Spanish, 50% Ecuadorian.

Holidays Means Family

Hey there, Monday. Thanks for being almost 70-degrees today. Unfortunately, we’re scheduled for RAIN for the next five days, so I took advantage of running outdoors today. There’s no school this week for most kids (spring break) so I don’t have to pick Lili up. I left the office at 11 for my run and headed over to the high school for a good track workout.

Ready for some REPEATS

Post-Stretches

Track wasn’t empty like last week (even though kids are on Spring Break). There were a few dedicated students practicing on their own. 🙂

The weekend was great. After work on Thursday, Lili and I picked up her brother and then we (my brother and his girlfriend, Mimi met us there) took the kids to the park. We ended up taking my niece, Scarlett, also.

First Park Fun

Even though I’ve taken Sebastian to the park in the past, this was his first real time at the park — running, falling, playing. I feel like a helicopter mom with him. He is so fearless, he has NO clue how hurt he could really get himself into.

Having fun

After the park, (we stayed maybe an hour), I asked my niece if she wanted to sleep over and she wanted to, so we headed home. P met us at the park so followed. I ended up preparing dinner and took out the big WOK.

Stir Fry Steak & Onions

After dinner, the kids had their baths and they were all asleep by 8:30 PM. Go me! Of course, they were all up at 6:30 AM. Lili came into our bedroom and said, “Mommy, I just wanted to say I love you!” Then walked out — but then I heard the girls giggling up a storm and so got up and started the day.

Mimi was coming over in the morning to do some Easter Egg activities. Scarlett wouldn’t be spending Easter with us as she would be with her father that weekend, so we didn’t want to leave her out. I started preparing breakfast.

I baked banana bread and an almond pound cake.

Homemade Breads

Then I made some pancakes. We were ready to eat by 8:45. I know, it took a bit to prepare everything.

Easter Pancakes

The kids ate so much.

Breakfast

While they ate, I started preparing croquetas. My MIL had leftover turkey meat from the previous Sunday and I needed to still prep the ingredients. It’s so laborious but I was determined to get them done. They had to chill in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours before I could start the second process — and to actually cook some up.

Anyway, after that was all done and dishes were washed, we started some Easter fun. First we dyed the eggs.

Egg Dying Time

Lili’s Egg

Sebastian went down for a nap around this time so it worked out perfectly. When the eggs were done, they had a snack so I could set up for Easter project #2. After clean up, they pinned the tail on the bunny.

Pin the Tail

Scarlett enjoyed this one so much she asked if she could take it home. I let her since we did this the last two weekends. At this point, Mimi had to leave us, but it was fun to have her there. We then ate lunch and then did more Easter crafts. Some egg decorating ornaments. OH, and I made a batch of croquetas that I had prepared from earlier.

Turkey Croquetas

Egg-tivities

They came out super cute.

Scarlett and her Egg

I was EGG-HAUSTED by the time they were done and it was 4:30 by this point. So I put a movie in and told them it was time to wind things down before Scarlett had to leave.

Movie Time

Around 5:30 we called my in-laws to wish them a Happy Anniversary and then Scarlett was on her way out around 6pm. We had dinner, kids had a bath and in BED. They were tired.

Saturday, we woke up and I ran 6.2-Miles on the tread. We had late lunch plans with my brother and Mimi.

Post Run Smiles

I caught up with Grey’s Anatomy. Then the kids ate breakfast and napped — well not Lili. She had a hard time. My brother and Mimi got to the house by 1:30 and we headed out to Casa Vasca for lunch. It was a birthday celebration/graduation lunch for both Mimi and EJ.

Big Boy Eating

When we got home, the kids relaxed and I was tired, but P said he would go to the grocery store to pick me up a few things that I had to prepare for Easter festivities. I ended up baking some brownies while he left (around 7pm).

Chocolate BROWNIES

Pedro wasn’t home by 8 so I had to give the kids a bath and put them to bed. I didn’t start prepping the mac and cheese until 11PM.

Mac & Cheese

P couldn’t find gruyere so I told him to get the manchego cheese. There are so many cheeses in this mac and cheese — fontina, gorgonzola, gruyere, parmesan and white cheddar. BUT, I figure, what’s the harm in substituting a cheese… It still came out delicious.

AND then at midnight I said to P in a panic, “O.M.G. we didn’t even get OUR own kids Easter baskets!” So yeah, P ran out at 12:30 AM and spent $90 on Easter baskets.

Easter Bunny Came

I didn’t sleep till 2:30 AM and the kids woke up at 7. I asked Lili if she thought the Easter Bunny came and she said, “I think so. Let me go check!” A few seconds later I hear, “HE CAME! HE CAME!! HE REALLY CAME!!!” it was cute.

Baskets Filled

All Sebastian kept saying was “WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!” It was adorable. I let them play for a bit and then we had to get ready for Easter festivities.

Breakfast with my in-laws.

Let’s Eat

The boys

More Goodies

EGGS

Stoop Photo

Hanging outside

After two hours, we headed home and the kids napped. 2:15 I baked the mac and cheese and then we headed over to my dad’s for late lunch/early dinner.

Easter Car Selfie

Fam Jam #2

We did an egg hunt and then hung out for a bit before calling it a night. We came home and we were all tired! I was so tired, after bath, I fell asleep before the kids (at 8:15 PM). At least Lili has no school this week.

Pictures overload, I know!

How was your weekend?

Celebrate Easter? Did you go overboard with chocolate? I need to hide all the chocolate we have in the house. UGH!

Oh The Places You Will Go

It’s #readacrossamerica today as we celebrate the birthday of the great Dr. Seuss.  Lili has a bunch of fun activities scheduled this week to celebrate Dr. Seuss.  



We did some pre-celebration activities this weekend.  First we had to stop at the mall to pick her up a silly hat.  It was “silly hat” day today.



She hand-picked this out herself.  Unicorns are the best.  I also picked out some clothes for B and then we just walked around for a bit.



B was the perfect kid at the mall. Thank goodness.  He has been throwing tantrums here and there.  He almost threw one at one point but quickly refrained.  

We started the process of daylight savings. I am dreading it.  But I had the kids in bed early.  Unfortunately, I went against sleeping early and slept at 3:30AM.  Yeah, that pretty much left me with 3 hours of sleep because kids were up by 6:30. HA.  Oh well. 

I got up and did our routine, except this time, since we were doing pre-celebratons for Dr. Seuss.  We started with baking pancakes.



And we cut them out into Feet and Fish (The Foot Book and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish).



And then we read our book and did some arts and crafts.



After the kids napped, I had to stop at the gym to activate my groupon.  It was snowing pretty hard out, so I just wanted to activate it since it expired that day.  When I got home, we ate and then I ran on the treadmill .  Well, after these two got off the ‘mill.



Followed by yoga.



Her cat pose.  HA.

Anyway, great weekend.  We got to go out, I was able to run twice and the kids had a blast with their Dr. Seuss crafts.  

What was is/your favorite Dr. Seuss quote or book?

Anybody else counting the days till Spring?

Happy Monday! 



Hillburn

12:15 PM: Hill Repeats – COMPLETED

The town I work in (Millburn) should really be called Hillburn because everywhere corner you turn, there’s a gigantic hill — and it really does burn.  In fact, the girl I work with used to walk at lunch for an hour until her chiropractor told her that the uphills were making her back worse — so she needed to walk somewhere more flat.  I did hill repeats on Mountain Ave and Sagamore whilst listening to Biggie.

Hill Repeats

I never realized how out of shape I was until I did my first hill repeat today.  How is it possible that I felt in more shape exactly one year ago, at 11-weeks pregnant, doing hill repeats with Cici? I mean, I was able to hang with her for a bit before giving up, but today — holy hills.  OUT.OF.SHAPE!  Practice makes perfect.

Yesterday, I did something pretty bold.  I took a toddler and a baby to mass… alone.  How I survived is beyond me.  Lili almost screamed and I gave her “the look” — it almost didn’t work, but oh boy — she’s lucky she did.  We were home by 5 with ashes.

#ashtag

I still needed to get a tempo run in, so I did that on the tread while the kids hung out.   Fortunately, my ash didn’t smudge from my sweat.

#ashwednesday

Post-run, I cleaned up a bit and made a quick dinner for Lili and I.  I was so tired — I gave the baby a bath and Lili skipped hers because she wasn’t feeling well, nor did she sound too good.  Hopefully she gets better quickly, especially since it’s supposed to be in the 50s this Saturday.  I want to take her out for a run.

Oh, it’s my Friday.  So what’s the plans? Well, with sick Lili, I’m not even sure what I’ll do.  I know laundry will be on the list.  Other than that, I think I’m going to wing it.  The next few weekends will be jam-packed.  Our nephew’s birthday next weekend, my brother’s birthday the following weekend and then Sebastian’s baptism on the 30th.

Tempo, Hill Repeats, Track Workouts, Farletks, Long Run, Recovery Run… what’s your favorite?

With a friend, I love them all… but if I had to pick one, I think I’ll go with the long run.

Happy Thursday!

Heatwave

6:30 AM: 5.05-Mile Run @ 10:06 min/mi (1-mile warm-up; 3-miles of hill repeats; 1-mile cool-down) – COMPLETED

The rest of the week is going to be pretty H-O-T and H-U-M-I-D, and they’re calling for Friday as the muggiest and hottest of all, 110-degrees. Lovely. I have plans on Friday to meet my MIL for an early lunch in town. She has a massage scheduled down the street from my house so that will be nice. I’m thinking I’ll walk over — do I dare? Eh, why not. I’m sure she’ll drive me back to work after.

Anyway, we’re trying to make best of the hot weather, including Lili getting in on some FUN.

Sprinkler Fun

Oh, to be young again. I remember jumping back and forth into my sprinklers when I was 4-5 years old. Now, the only time I jump into them is during a race or long run when I need to cool down. HA.

I had plans to run outdoors this morning, but plans got changed — and so I rolled and unfolded my lovely treadmill. So easy and convenient. I had Lili’s bowl of cereal ready so she ate while I ran the first half and then played the second half until she said, “Mommy, I poo-poo!” I changed her during cool-down and then hopped back on.

Today, I decided that since I might be planning to do the Pizza 5k next week, I should really incorporate some hills in this workout — so I did inclines for three miles and ran them for at least half a mile. I had the incline at 6-7. It was good and I worked up a great sweat.

Four Things Wednesday

So yes, four things I’m loving this morning are hill repeats on the tread; being able to still see my feet with mismatched socks; a daughter who was mad that didn’t get to go running so hops on the tread after me and homemade banana bread with cookie butter.

I’m still busy at work, but I need to walk over to Trader Joe’s at lunch. Hoping today will go as fast as it did yesterday. I feel like it’s a Thursday — but it’s only Friday. Wahhhhh…

Also, we’re thinking of a short weekend getaway. We LOVE D.C., but it’s going to be extremely HOT there, so now we’re thinking Boston, Cape Cod or Cape May.

Where else can we go for a long weekend (4-days)? Are you going on any vacations/long weekends anywhere?